Lacrosse notebook: The journey is the satisfaction for Liberty High's playoff boys program

CHRIS SHIPLEY, The Morning Call

Liberty coach Joe Sexton and the Hurricanes play their first District 11 tournament game Thursday at Easton.

Liberty coach Joe Sexton and the Hurricanes play their first District 11 tournament game Thursday at Easton. (CHRIS SHIPLEY, The Morning Call)

The journey's the reward for Liberty boys lacrosse

It's expected to be a brief appearance for Liberty in the District 11 boys lacrosse tournament.

The eighth-seeded Hurricanes travel to top-seeded Easton, a team that has thumped them twice this year including 17-3 in last week's Eastern Pennsylvania Conference semifinals.

However, for coach Joe Sexton and his players, the satisfaction comes from the journey that put Liberty in the postseason for the first time, not the outcome.

Sexton and others formed the school's girls program 12 years ago, then battled for the next eight years to add a boys program, which happened in 2012. Through the whole process Sexton, who had been the girls coach but jumped to the boys program when it started, led the effort to convince the school district to assume sponsorship from the parent- and player-funded club, an effort that finally succeeded this year.

Now, in their first season as an official varsity sport, the Hurricanes are in the playoffs. They qualified for the EPC playoffs by winning the Steel Division, and a 5-5 conference record put them in districts.

"It's a huge step after struggling for 12 years to get into the [school] district," said Sexton, who served as president of both the boys and girls lacrosse clubs in addition to being the boys coach. "We were finally successful in getting [lacrosse] funded by the district, and to be able to get into the playoffs for the first year is even better."

After a junior varsity season in 2012, Liberty was 3-14 in its first varsity season, actually winning its first game over Bethlehem Catholic, another first-year program that season. The 'Canes were 4-11 last year.

This year, Liberty opened its season with its first-ever win over cross-town rival Freedom, and was 3-3 with three league victories after beating Bethlehem Catholic on April 17.

Conference wins over the Golden Hawks and the Patriots in the season's final week gave the Hurricanes their playoff spot, and their current record is 6-11.

Liberty faces the Red Rovers this afternoon in Easton in the district quarterfinals.

Sexton's varsity roster features seven players who have been with the program since Day 1, including three starters — midfielder Evan Smith, attack Ryan Brong and attack Matt Tkacik.

"Those kids helped me start the club, and it's a great feeling for the kids to go out in the playoffs, and for me to see it happen," said Sexton, an emergency room physician in the Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Sexton, who played high school lacrosse in New Jersey and club lacrosse in college and as an adult, knows the gap between his team and the EPC elite is still a wide chasm. The Hurricanes were outscored 75-25 in their five league losses, and Sexton says it will take a much stronger feeder system to catch up.

"Last year we were at Parkland on their senior night, and every one of their seniors had played lacrosse for 10 or more years. My kids' jaws just dropped," Sexton said. "It's great to be able to get into the playoffs and compete against kids like that this year, but we'll never catch up without a much, much stronger feeder program"

At the moment, the local youth lacrosse program feeds both Freedom and Liberty, but Sexton believes Liberty is "big enough" to have its own.

"I think maybe I'm ready to break off and help get one going," he said.

The loss dropped the Lions (12-3) behind Parkland (14-6) into the fourth seed, with Parkland climbing to No. 3.

So the Lions now host No. 5 Emmaus (12-7) at 5 p.m. today on its Bethlehem Township campus while the Trojans host No. 6 Central (11-6) on their home field behind the school's football stadium in Orefield.

The final boys district quarterfinal has No. 8 Nazareth (6-12), who like Liberty qualified with a .500 EPC record, traveling to No. 2 Southern Lehigh (15-3).

The brackets set up potential Easton-Emmaus, Southern Lehigh-Parkland semifinals next Tuesday at Nazareth.

In the girls tournament, EPC champion and top-seeded Parkland (18-2) and second-seeded Southern Lehigh (18-0), the first team in area history to go through the regular season without a loss, received byes.

Third-seeded Easton (12-5) hosts No. 6 Nazareth (8-10, 5-5) at 4 p.m. on an adjacent field to the boys at Easton Middle School. No. 4 Moravian Academy (12-5) hosts No. 5 Emmaus (11-9) at 3:30 p.m. in the opener of a doubleheader with the boys on the Lions' field.

Southern Lehigh will play either Easton or Nazareth in Tuesday's semifinals at Emmaus, with Parkland taking on either Moravian Academy or Emmaus in the nightcap.

The district finals are set for Emmaus next Thursday, the girls in the opener and the boys to follow.

Scheduling: With the distinct possibility that the same four schools — Parkland, Emmaus, Southern Lehigh and Easton — will be involved in both the boys and girls semifinals, the question again rises — why not split them up?

A school administrator said that the district tries not to schedule events on Fridays during the spring to avoid conflicts with school proms and other events, meaning a Tuesday/Wednesday semifinal and Friday championship format is off the table.

The administrator also said that coaches generally don't want to play Mondays, either.

I understand the explanation. But I still disagree with it, especially the playing-on-Monday's part of it.

Now that PIAA events and practices can be held on Sundays (provided the teams get a day off later in the week), coaches involved in a Monday game could still practice the day before. And to attaining equality, the semifinals could be alternated from year to year — boys on Monday this year, girls on Monday next year.

Besides, league playoff games are often scheduled for Monday (witness this week's lacrosse championship games).

Again, all that does is divide the fan base for each school and force families to choose if they have a connection to both teams.

Coach's call: Coaches are urged to send your all-area nominations as well as your choices for the top player and coach in District 11 as soon as possible. For your player nominations, include their statistics and any other relevant information.